Poland’s four main mobile operators – Orange, Era, Plus and Play – are facing a combined fine of PLN2.5 billion (£536 million) following a price fixing probe, the Warsaw Business Journal reports. It has been alleged that the operators have colluded to disadvantage INFO-TV-FM, winner of a licence to offer mobile broadcast services in the country, which needs the support of the operators in order to commercially launch services. According to the country’s competition and consumer protection office, UOKiK, after a six month investigation, it declared that “in our opinion there is evidence that the operators illegally engaged in price fixing.” The four could be fined up to 10 percent of their revenue for 2009.

Poland’s mobile TV licence process took place in 2009, and in winning its licence INFO-TV-FM beat a consortium of Orange, Era, Plus and Play. With these operators now unwilling to work with the new entrant, INFO-TV-FM has been unable to move its services past the pilot stage. Broadband TV News says that UOKiK launch an investigation into the activities of the companies in December 2009, at which point all parties involved denied any wrongdoing.